On a hypothetical generational relationship between HCN and constituents of the reductive citric acid cycle

Abstract

Encouraged by observations made on the course of reactions the HCN-tetramer can undergo with acetaldehyde, I delineate a constitutional and potentially generational relationship between HCN and those constituents of the reductive citric acid cycle that are direct precursors of amino acids in contemporary metabolism. In this context, the robustness postulate of classical prebiotic chemistry is questioned, and, by an analysis of the (hypothetical) reaction-tree of a stepwise hydrolysis of the HCN-tetramer, it is shown how such a non-robust chemical reaction platform could harbor the potential for the emergence of autocatalytic cycles. It is concluded that the chemistry of HCN should be revisited by focussing on its non-robust parts in order to demonstrate its full potential as one of the possible roots of prebiotic self-organizing chemical processes.